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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

"The Other 8 Hours is all about investing your time
in activities that pay the highest returns—whether the returns are financial,
physical or spiritual. How you invest your other 8 hours determines your
happiness and financial success."

- The Other 8 Hours, page 59

Although
we don’t realize it, most of our most significant achievements and
relationships occur in the 8 hours we’re not working or sleeping. The author
calls these the “other 8 hours.”

In The
Other 8 Hours: Maximize your Free Time to Create New Wealth and Purpose, Robert
Pagliarini asserts that we can take control of these hours to achieve what we
want. For some of us, that might be more personal time with our families; for
others it could be pursuing a side venture generating an extra income stream.

The
author is a financial planner who’s written several books and appeared as a
financial expert on numerous television shows. He’s used his other 8 hours to
productively build his financial planning practice and distills his wisdom in
this highly practical book.

The Golden Egg

Uncover your ideal life

"A
meaningful life is what The Other 8 Hours is all about. Since most people don’t
get a lot of meaning from sleep or work, our last hope is to find meaning
during the other 8 hours. If we can fill some of this time with identifying and
reaching our purpose, our lives will be much more satisfying and full."-
The Other 8 Hours, page 233

Pagliarini
refers to it as finding your pulse and uncovering your ideal life. Get out of
survival mode and look forward to thriving. “You need to get clear on what ‘get
a life’ means to you, and you need to invest the other 8 hours in activities
that enrich you and bring you closer to your ideal.”

Pagliarini
offers several ways to help us figure out what our ideal life would look like.
He suggests starting out by embracing the gap, which he refers to the divide
between where you are and where you want to be. Going through the different
areas of your life—family, health, finances, and growth—you can identify gaps
in a particular area.

Once
you’ve identified gaps, prioritize and set goals for the areas you want to
begin work on. He offers suggestions for dealing with setbacks such as
anticipating as many roadblocks as you can to prepare yourself for obstacles.
Brainstorm solutions before being confronted with them.

Gem #1

Re-gain control of your time

"Reclaiming
as much of the other 8 hours as possible is our first goal because without it,
we are stuck… The more of the other 8 hours you have, the more you can focus on
those pursuits that make your life more fulfilled and get you closer to
reaching your goals."- The Other 8 Hours, page 33

In
order to maximize the other 8 hours, we need to ensure we have the time and
energy to work on the pursuits we want to. Taking control of your time and
identifying non-essential tasks is the first step. Pagliarini calls this PERK,
which he identifies as Postpone, Eliminate, Reduce or Keep. Are there any
unimportant and unsatisfying tasks that can be put off or eliminated to free up
your time, such as excessive TV watching?

A
related suggestion to PERK is to outsource activities that take a ton of your
time and you don’t enjoy doing. This is especially helpful if you have a little
extra cash but are short on time. There are numerous companies providing
outsourcing services at various price levels.

One
unconventional recommendation is something the author calls frictionless
reciprocation. He describes this as doing a valuable task for someone without
it requiring any additional use of your time. An example would be cooking a
meal for a neighbor in exchange for him mowing your lawn. Cooking an extra
serving of a meal requires minimal additional effort and is something you
planned on doing anyway.

Once
you’ve figured out what you want and freed up your time, become a creator.

Gem #2

Become a Creator and Monetize your Passions

"Sometimes
you need to do something new and different to succeed."- The Other 8
Hours, page 82

You’ve
freed up your other 8 hours and figured out what you would enjoy doing more of.
Use that newfound knowledge to start creating a new stream of income.

A
creator is someone who produces or develops a side project or venture that
brings inspiration to his life. The kind of “excitement you can feel when you
are creating something you are passionate about.”

An
initial consideration is a cost/benefit analysis. How much effort and money
will the side venture require compared to results generated? Given the time
constraints, focus on high leverage activities providing the greatest results
from the least effort.

In
addition, consider your unique talents, skills and experience to “produce the
most value”. You don’t want to spend a year learning the business before you
see a pay-off. Stick to your circle of competence. The author goes on to list
several side gigs including starting a blog, freelancing as well as reselling
and affiliating (via Amazon).

The
other 8 hours are key to creating change in your life and “if you don’t invest
the other 8 hours in the areas of your life that are important to you, those
areas will shrivel up and waste away.”

Problems are servants. Problems bring possibilities. They help
you grow and lead to better things, both in your organisation and within your
life. Inside every problem lies a precious opportunity to improve things.
Every challenge is nothing more than a chance to make things better. To avoid
them is to avoid growth and progress. To resist them is to decline greatness.
Embrace and get the best from the challenges in front of you. And understand
that the only people with no problems are dead.
An interpersonal conflict at work can seem like a problem.
But if you think like a leader and use the circumstance to build
understanding, promote communication and enrich the relationship, the problem
has actually made you better. It has been fodder for your growth and served
you nicely. Bless it.
An illness or the loss of a loved one might seem like a problem. Sure it's
painful (been there, done that, on the divorce side). But I've been shaped by
my saddest experiences. They've brought me depth, compassion and wisdom. They
have given me self-awareness. They've made me the man that I am. I wouldn't
trade them for the world.
The only people with no problems are dead. Problems reveal genius.
World-class organisations have a culture that sees problems as opportunities
for improvement. Don’t condemn them — learn from them and embrace them.
World-class human beings turn their wounds into wisdom. They leverage their
failures to bring them closer to success. They don't see problems. They see
possibilities. And that's what makes them great. Remember, a mistake is only
a mistake if you make it twice.
Robin Sharma is author of The Greatness Guide (Jaico)

It's not easy for a new brand to make a mark in the competitive
Indian smartphone segment. There are few that make an instant impact with their
offerings but many just fade away . itel (the lowercase `i' is intentional) is
the latest on the scene and they have started out with three budget Android
smartphones. Of the three, the SelfiePro it1511 is the most expensive and is
aimed at users who want a good camera without spending too much.

The phone has an 8MP primary camera with dual LED flash. There
is a dedicated shutter button on the side which works well and is a rare
feature on smartphones these days. We were surprised by the camera performance
-focus speed is zippy and the image quality is fantastic (for the price). The
photos have good details, rich colours, and minimal noise.They've really spent
time on the camera. You get the option of guidelines, a level meter, touch
capture, shutter sound, voice capture, gesture shot, smile shot, timer and EIS
(electronic image stabilization). The only thing we thought was missing was a
professional or manual mode.

As the name suggests, this is a phone that recognises the selfie
craze. Even the front camera has an LED flash for better selfies. Even though
the front camera is `only' 2MP, daylight images are great. Indoors and in low
light we did notice some purple fringing around the edges. With the selfie
flash on, the camera manages to capture more detail and most of the time, it
manages to take photos good enough for sharing on social media or use as
profile pictures.

Hardware is not the best in the price range as you get a quad
core processor but with just 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. Even though navigation is
zippy, the phone does struggle with games -be prepared for low frame rates and
stutters. In normal usage, we noticed that the phone had around 400MB RAM free
at any given point -even with over 10 apps running in the background. Battery
manages to last from 9 am to 5pm with normal use but charging the phone takes
over 4 hours since there is no fast charging support. One good thing about the phone
is that it looks more expensive than its asking price. There is a faux leather
finish on the rear panel with a slight curve, brushed metal edges and metallic
buttons. The 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels has wide
viewing angles and excellent brightness. As with most budget phones, the
display has thick bezels (they don't look too nice but consider the price
again).

Overall, as the first device from itel, the it1511 manages to
leave an impression. It scores high on looks, design, display, day-to-day
performance, features as well as the camera. The only major quirk we have is
the slow battery charging. The biggest hurdle for itel is brand recognition.

...that is India, each community enjoys
a variety of unique mango delicacies….. the traditions, tales and recipes of
savoury preparations

Prawn and mango curry, Goa

There’s no summer that passes in Goan
homes when we don’t look up at mango trees, lush with the raw green fruit
threatening to turn into the famed varieties of Monserrate, St Anton and
Mankurates that we pluck and transport to the kitchen.

There is a plan in mind. The popular
Goan fish curry is now ready to receive its annual benediction of a tang,
which is exactly what the raw mango does. The curry paste itself will undergo
no change whatsoever, since it is sacrosanct, but to its repertoire there
will be gorgeous slices of mangoes, with the juicy seed, floating in equal
measure with prawns or shrimps. Or sometimes, like the diva that the mango
is, all by itself. Here’s the recipe:

—Amy Fernandes

For curry paste

l 1/2 coconut, scraped

l 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

l 1/2 tsp haldi

l 5-6 peppercorns

l 6 red Kashmiri or Byadagi chillies,
deseeded

l 1/2 inch ginger

l 1 tsp tamarind paste

l 1 tsp raw rice

Grind to fine paste and keep aside

Other ingredients

l 1 cup shrimps (washed, deveined,
salt-sprinkled)

l 1 medium-sized raw mango (washed,
peeled and sliced

like potato wedges. Retain

the seed)

Method

Heat a tablespoon of oil and throw in
some curry leaves and a sliced tomato. Stir till it turns soft and add the
curry paste. Fry on slow heat for 3 to 4 minutes, add half a cup of water and
salt to taste, and bring to a boil. Now, add the shrimps and cook for a few
minutes before adding the mangoes. Once the shrimps and mangoes are cooked,
you’re on. Eat with steaming hot rice.

Ras nu jamanwar, Gujarat

Kids sitting cross-legged in a line
on the floor, bending forward whilst sucking on succulent mangoes with a dish
underneath to prevent messing the clothes or the floor, entails my fondest
childhood memories of summer vacations at nani’s house. Despite the
precaution, the orange pulp almost always got smeared around our lips, and in
my case, when I indulged in keri on rare occasions (I wasn’t very fond of
them), it would make its way to my legs, hair, and elbows, giving everyone
reason for a good laugh, “You’ve made your whole body eat!” On seeing my lack
of enthusiasm when the carton of mangoes would arrive at home and make
everyone’s faces light up, my grandfather would tell me, “You’re really not a
Bhula. How can you not like mangoes?” But what I looked forward to—and still
do—like the rest of the family, was ras nu jamanwar (a special meal that
complements aam ras) at our house, and once in the season at nani’s as well.
Hours of joyous yet laborious cooking go into preparing ras (made of Pairi
keri sans milk or any additions; alphonsos are only eaten cut or in
milkshakes), puris or bapdi rotli (a double roti that is opened once it
balloons fully, resulting into two thin, almost translucent ones), gunda nu
shak (fragrant manjack with stuffing of gram flour, jaggery and masalas),
fajeto (mango and curd curry) and rice. Nani’s house would also have
tindola-parval nu shaak (ivy gourd and pointed gourd sabzi with masalas and
grated coconut) and for farsan, the famous dhokla (hers are with rava, not
rice). Gujaratis have ras in many ways: plain, iced, with rice (in place of
dal) or like I love it during these meals, breaking a rotli, taking some
gunda and lots of the extra stuffing, dipping it into ras (instead of fajeto,
as most do) and enjoying the divine melange of flavours. My favourite is
ras-dhokla as dinner during the mango season. Here’s how you have it: dip hot
dhoklas into the accompanying spicy coriander chutney, then in ras and wolf
them down. This season is also the one time when my sister, famous for
avoiding dinner at home, checks the refrigerator daily for a bowl, or many,
of doodh-keri (milk mixed with hand-mashed mango pulp and floating cubes of
alphonso mangoes). Irresistible!

—Pooja Bhula

Ingredients

(Gunda nu shaak)

l 1/2 kg medium-sized unripe gundas
(fragrant manjack)

l 11/2 cup gram flour roasted in a
tbsp of oil

l 4 tsp dhania powder

l 4 tsp red chilli powder

l 1/4 tsp salt

l 1 cup grated jaggery

Method

Wash the gundas, remove the stalk and
hit that spot with a pestle such that it cracks. For each gunda, dip a knife
in salt, insert it in the opening, scoop out the seed and remove the glue.
Once they are deseeded and glue-free, stuff them with the roasted gram flour
(to which masalas, salt and jaggery have been added once it cools after
roasting). Keep the extra mixture aside. In a deep pan, add 1.5 tbsp oil and
stuffed gundas. Cover with a thali containing some water. Slow cook for 20
minutes. Once they soften, remove the lid and add the remaining flour mix.
Toss from time to time and slow cook for about 10 minutes, till the mixture
outside is crunchy and almost black. Serve.

Pakke aam ki sabzi, Rajasthan

Every grain of sand in the desert
region of Rajasthan seems to hold a story to amaze you. It’s no wonder then
that a simple pakke aam ki sabzi, which my Marwari friend, Chitra, recalls
her mother making at home since her teenage years, has a fascinating tale
too. “We first ate it in Surat, where my uncle had moved; it’s made in every
other house there,” she says. Turns out it’s not her family and relatives
alone who make it, but many in the Oswal community that she belongs to, as
well as others in western Rajasthan. “Rajasthanis got their supply of mangoes
from Gujarat, where it is much cherished, as this king of fruits was a
favourite corporate gift among traders in medieval times. The similarity
between Oswal and Gujarati cuisine is a result of their strong trade
relations, which led to inter-marriage and subsequently, cultural mingling,”
says Jaipur-based travel consultant and history major, Arun Pratap Singh.
Western Rajasthan is greatly influenced by the Oswals, and so, other
communities there too prepare aam ki sabzi, albeit in their own way. For
instance, while Chitra’s version is a complete vegetable in itself with ripe,
spiced alphonso slices, a granny of Singh’s friend in Pali prepares it like a
thick pulpy gravy — with the seed thrown in too — to replace dal during the
summers. It is eaten with complementing dry vegetables such as bhindi. Care
for some?

—Pooja Bhula (Recipe by Chitra Golia
Sethia)

Ingredients

l 6 alphonso mangoes

l 6 tsp dhania

l 1 1/2 tsp turmeric

l 2 tsp red chilli powder

l 2 tbsp ghee

l 1-2 tsp sugar

l 4-5 tbsp mango pulp

l Salt to taste

Method

Make vertical slits on the unskinned
alphonso mangoes, but not right till the bottom. Fill the masalas in the
slits. To a semi-deep pan, add badi elaichi (optional), all the same masalas
in the quantity you wish and some mango pulp, sugar and salt. Slow cook a bit
and then add the mangoes. Slow cook for another 10-12 minutes till the mango
skin softens enough for it to rupture with your finger. Eat with thick
chapattis.

Mango, muri, maach & more West
Bengal

Summers in Bengal are about the
nor’westers blowing petticoats off your clothesline and grandma insisting
that you bury your back in Dermicool to avoid those prickly heat rashes.
Thankfully, they are also about mangoes—creamy sweet Himsagars, full-bodied
Fazlis or the blushing Golapkhash, often accused of immoral attractiveness.

Over the years, Bengali women have
managed to involve mangoes at different stages of the meal. They have long
figured out how a smattering of raw mango in masoor dal can make the whole
family cluck their tongues in sour delight—while at the same time pacifying
their nervous Bengali stomachs. When it comes to fish, they turn to mango as
well, marrying off the humble mourola maach (mola carplet) to the king of
fruits, with a merry borjaatri (groomsmen) of mustard seeds, green chillies
and mustard oil. But the most simple, and genius, of inventions is doodh muri
aam, literally ‘milk, puffed rice, mango’ that’s soul food for children, old
folks and everyone in between. Served in wide bowls that encourage happy,
ungraceful swigs of the milk thickened by puffed rice and mashed mango pulp,
this feast can be put together faster than a Bengali can rattle off the names
of his favourite revolutionaries. Versatility being the fruit’s middle name,
doodh muri aam is enjoyed both as breakfast and dessert.

—Sohini Das Gupta

Ingredients (Aam dal)

l 1 cup red masoor dal

l 1 small green mango (raw, sliced
boat-like)

l 1 green chilli (slit)

l 11/2 tsp mustard oil; 1/2 - 3/4 tsp
mustard seeds

l Salt and sugar to taste

Method

Heat mustard oil, add mustard seeds
and the green chilli. Once the seeds crackle, add the mango slices, toss and
add dal, salt and sugar (as per the mango’s size and sourness). Once it
boils, serve with steamed rice.

Ingredients (Mourola maach er tok)

l 500 gm mourola fish

l 1 green mango (raw, thinly sliced)

l 11/2 tsp mustard oil; 1/2 – 3/4 tsp
mustard seeds

l 2-3 green chillies (slit)

l 1/2 cup ripe mango pulp

l Salt and sugar to taste

Method

Marinate fish with some turmeric and
salt and fry. Heat mustard oil. Add mustard seeds, let them crackle, then add
mango slices, a pinch of turmeric, green chillies, 2 tea cups of water, the
fish, salt and sugar (as per size and sourness of mango). Cook a bit. Remove
from the gas and drizzle the mango pulp. Serve with steamed rice.

Mambhazham kootan, Kerala

Back in the ‘80s when I was growing
up, in the quintessentially south Indian locality of Sion, summers had quite
a few unfailing visitors. Out of which the ‘baby mango’ seller was the most
prominent because of his unmistakable sales cry. “Vaddumangai!” he would
shout in impeccable Tamil, though he was a typical ‘kaka’ with the bright,
white dhoti and topi. Vaddumangai is the tender, green, small mango that goes
into the making of the typical mango pickle. Summer also meant the Malayali
new year Vishu, though with Mumbai as our home, Diwali was far more exciting
than Vishu. But Vishu meant that typical Kerala foodstuff would make its way
home. Occupying the pride of place was ‘Mooaandam’ mango or Trichur mango,
the main ingredient for the famous mambhazham kootan or mango curry. However,
only after marriage did I start relishing it. Here’s my mother-in-law’s
recipe:

l 200 gm vellarikka (red cucumber
available at vendors’ selling south Indian vegetables)

l 1 sprig curry leaves

l Salt and spices (red chilli powder,
turmeric powder) to taste

Method

Skin the mangoes and cucumber. Deseed
the cucumber and chop into medium-sized pieces. Cut mangoes in large pieces,
leaving flesh on stone (seed) intact to use in the curry. Put all the chopped
pieces in a large pan, add salt and spices, a little water and cook till
evenly done. Don’t overcook. Add to it a fine paste of coconut, curd and
cumin seeds, as well as some water you would have ideally used to cleanse off
the mixie jar in which you made the yummy paste. Adjust seasoning, add
jaggery and mix well. Add stalks of curry leaf. Let it all blend well. Switch
off the gas.

"More modestly, [this book] will give you the
courage to say what you think and to ask for what you want and, if what you
want is obtainable, it will give you the best chance of obtaining it
quickly."

- Talk Lean, page 12

Talk
Lean is based on a training approach created
by Philippe de Lapoyade, who through his company Interactifs, has taught
communication techniques for 25 years to companies all over the globe. The
author, Alan Palmer, runs these seminars in Europe and was permissioned by
Philippe to produce a written version of the methods presented at the seminars.

Talk
Lean: Shorter Meetings. Quicker Results. Better Relations, by Alan Palmer, provides a valuable framework for
improving the results you want from your conversations and meetings. The
principles and skills Palmer describes are a refreshing antidote to the
struggles people experience when planning difficult conversations.

The
author provides numerous examples, revealing clearer and more concise ways of
getting your point across, including some that would be considered difficult or
at least mildly uncomfortable such as asking your boss for a raise. Many of the
methods or principles discussed focus on putting the listener in a proper frame
of mind to listen and therefore be more receptive to your ideas. Its aim is to
increase trust and transparency in all your communications. A good place to
start is by figuring out and declaring the purpose of your conversation or
meeting.

The Golden Egg

Be clear about your true intentions

"When
you announce an objective at the beginning of your meeting, you’re being very
clear about what you want to happen at the end of the meeting."- Talk
Lean, page 51

It’s
surprising how many people plan a meeting or conversation without stating a
clear outcome or goal of what they expect to happen at the end of the
interaction. This happens because people are either afraid or uncomfortable to
say what they’re actually thinking. If you’re thinking of something, say so. It
adds value to the relationship and increases confidence in what you say.

When
you state your intentions at the beginning, you are being open and candid about
what you want. Be direct and open about your intention. This sets the stage for
increasing transparency and building trust with the other person (or people).

A
valid objective involves “what you want the other person (or people) to do or
say or think at the end of the meeting, or what you want the two (or more) of
you to have produced together at the end of the meeting.” It must be something
that is achievable from all interested parties involved.

So,
you’ve declared what you’d like to achieve from your interaction. Now, how do
you increase your odds of getting it?

Gem #1

Personalize your statements

"It’s
always more powerful and better for the relationship to personalize the
statement, to favor the first person over the second or the third."- Talk
Lean, page 127

When
people have something difficult to say or are just uncomfortable being direct
with someone, they hide behind meaningless impersonal phrases and indirectly
try to communicate their point. They bury their true intentions to soften the
blow and secretly hope the other person picks up on their subtle hints.

A
better and more effective method would be to personalize your message using
“I”. Consider the author’s example, “I really want to work with you” versus
“We’re hoping we can possibly reach a mutually beneficial agreement.” The first
statement is much more powerful and direct. Or instead of saying “We’ll think
about it”, perhaps saying “I’m not interested” would work better.

The
author also believes that you should “express yourself one idea at a time and
then ask the other person what they think of what you’ve just said.” This gives
the listener time to actually ponder what was said so you can address any
concerns they may have. This increases your credibility and trust with the
listener.

Gem #2

Relearn to listen

"Listening,
despite appearing deceptively easy, is difficult to do effectively because our
emotions distort our view of what was actually said and because we’re already
busy analyzing and formulating responses whilst the other person is still
speaking."- Talk Lean, page 97

In
today’s hyper-connected and information overloaded world, listening is a
forgotten and underappreciated skill. We want 30 second sound bites and
headline summaries of what’s happening. But how can you adequately address what
someone’s concerns are if you don’t invest the time to listen?

Palmer’s
suggestion is to take notes by trying to capture the speaker’s exact words. He
calls it rigorous listening and asserts that it helps to enhance understanding
of what was actually said. Only once you understand what was said, can you
adequately respond.

The
author also recommends paying attention to body language and gestures used by
the person doing the talking. Is it consistent with the message? Palmer
believes that “Your body will always unconsciously be providing indications
about what you’re really thinking or feeling.” Words combined with gestures
increase impact.

I
believe that if you consistently apply the skills in this great book, you can
improve your communication results. The author offers great practical advice
and it’s up to us to put it into practice.

The opportunity for tech-enabled startups in education is huge
-as are the challenges of scalability and viability

In March 2015, Embibe, a company pro viding customised learning
solutions, de cided to make what appeared to be a fool hardy move. At a time
when startups were racing to squeeze out more revenue from their business, it
seemed to head in the opposite direction. After charging `12,000 per user for
its online education content, it decided to make its content available for free
and instead focus on im proving personalised learning outcomes.

The startup, backed by Kalaari Capital and Lightbox Ventures,
eschewed fresh funding and unfettered growth and de cided to strengthen its
business by push ing users to pay for better outcomes. In this case, it was via
what it called person alised score improvement, by looking at three key
parameters: behaviour or com mitment, test-taking skills and knowledge of
candidates.

Embibe's founder Aditi Avasthi says the company is using growing
capabilities in data analytics to go against conventional wisdom -and
entrenched offline and on line competition -and try to recast the focus of the
test-prep industry. From a zealous focus on inputs (massified, ge neric content
and questions for candi dates), Embibe wants to make more aspir ants successful
in tests. “Education tech nology, or edutech, is predominately an
inputs-focused business, with little atten tion to the output or end result
from using all this technology,“ she says.

Avasthi has led the hiring of senior management from companies
such as Flipkart and McKinsey to add muscle to Embibe's new business model and
says the firm can provide a 60% improvement on scores in over 10 tests. She
points to an IIT-Madras student who used the platform before the Joint Entrance
Exam to discover that he wasted precious time on 41 questions he didn't even
answer. “We will soon launch a score-improvement guarantee programme for our
candidates,“ she boasts. “We are basically selling them morphine.“ Despite her
bombast, Avasthi and her peers in this space are quick to admit that it is very
difficult to build scale and stickiness in this market. Not only do they have
to compete with offline rivals for the attention and money of different pieces
of the education ecosystem (students, parents, teachers, schools, government),
they also have to deal with a flood of free content that is available online.
“There has been little technology disruption in this segment,“ says Vamsi
Krishna, cofounder of Vedantu, an online marketplace for tutoring and test
prep, funded by Accel Partners and Tiger Global.

Free vs Paid

Convincing those who use free content to pay for value-added
material is hard -according to industry estimates barely 2-3% make this switch
while the rest elude the grasp of edutech companies. “Unlike other segments,
education ventures need time to incubate and organically grow,“ says Shantanu
Rooj, cofounder of Schoolguru, a provider of online courses to universities.

Funds are required to grow these businesses, but risk capital
investors remain guarded on the prospects of companies in this sector.
“Startups need to work hard to build trust as `education' brands,“ says GV
Ravishankar, managing director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors. “This will take
time. Startups should not expect that the best tech alone is sufficient to win
the market. They need to focus on delivering on the promise of better outcomes
for students.“

In March, Sequoia led the investment of $75 million in Byjus, an
online person alised learning tool started by Byju Raveendran, a former CAT
topper who used to run a successful chain of offline tutorial centres, before
knuckling down to take his business online. While ventures such as Embibe and
Topper (funded by Fidelity Partners, SAIF Partners and Helion Capital) focus on
students preparing for tests, Raveendran thinks there's a bigger market to be
tapped among students looking to improve their learning through the academic
year and beyond.

“Technology is playing a big role in making learning
interesting,“ he says. “With the smartphone as the access device, we have more
than half of our users from outside the top 10 cities.“ With over 1,20,000
paying students on the app, which was launched in Au gust 2015, Raveendran and
his team of 400 technologists, teachers and content developers want to move
away from India's traditional focus on rote-learning.

“We want to create a habit of autonomous learning for Indian
students,“ he says. Despite these claims, Byjus has not made a huge dent in the
market -it plans to have at least 3,00,000 paid users on the app in a year, in
a country with over 250 million students in the K-12 system.

Live Classes

Others such as Krishna of Vedantu are betting on the use of
technology to disrupt the way teaching and tutorials are delivered. In its
attempt to recast this business, Vedantu provides a live tutoring platform for
students and teachers (not just trained teachers but anyone -an engineer, a
homemaker or a retired senior citizen -who has time to spare) to take a few
classes.

Instead of a fixed salary that teachers get in the offline
world, the online tutors decide on the hours they work and the syllabus they
teach and get wages accordingly. This means teaching can be for as little as 15
minutes or can be booked for an entire semester. Vedantu provides teachers with
tools that enable them to create and share content, says Krishna. Users can
either buy a monthly package or purchase bulk hours. “We have 300 teachers on
Vedantu from over 200 cities and towns in India,“ he says. “We have 35,000
students who have completed over 70,000 hours of live sessions.“ As the model
gains more traction, Krishna sees the business growing at 25-30%
month-on-month.

When it comes to education, startups aren't just targeting the
K-12 herd. As the need for education spreads from preschool to employees who
want to be trained and retrained by experienced professionals, companies are
devising business ideas to keep pace. For example, Nayi Disha, a developer of
educational computer games for preschoolers, was founded by college mates
Kartik Aneja and Kushal Bhagia to provide a new medium of motion-based learning
for children.

Inspired by the educational CDs that they watched as children,
the duo have devised games that are used in over 100 schools today. With early
funding from private equity veteran Ajay Relan, among others, Nayi Disha should
be in 300 schools in a year, says Aneja, but they have no illusions about the
rough road ahead.

“Selling to schools can be quite tricky,“ he admits. “Since
multiple stakeholders are involved, it is difficult to evaluate who takes the
final decision.“ While Nayi Disha benefited from getting an early customer and
product votary in Swati Vats, president of Podar Education Network, the
founders have yet to put in the hard yards to convince potential customers,
even as they keep a wary eye out on potential competition. “Edutech can quickly
turn into a feeding frenzy, because every competitor can devise a me-too
product,“ says Aneja.

At the other end of the spectrum, compa nies such as UpGrad and
Simplilearn are targeting working executives who want to upgrade their
skills.Simplilearn started as a blog before it evolved into a venture to
provide mid-career training in new technologies such as big data, cloud, IT
security and digital marketing.

The firm, backed by over $27 million from Mayfield Fund, Kalaari
Capital and Helion Venture Partners, has trained over 5,00,000 people thus far
and expects to train 3,00,0004,00,000 people annually. Uniquely, Simplilearn
isn't an India-only business. The firm has studios in the US to build its
content and is eyeing expansion both in India and overseas. “We have become a
reliable source for working professionals to reskill and upskill themselves,“
says Krishna Kumar, CEO and cofounder, Simplilearn.“There is an opportunity to
build a global edu cation platform from India.“

As demand grows, Kumar and Co are tweaking the venture's
business model to keep pace. For instance, Simplilearn offers courses in
subjects such as big data, where a professional can take a clutch of online
courses and get professional certification once she complete the programme.
Elsewhere, the type of content is moving from purely self-learning modules to
live classes, even as the company goes beyond IT-related courses and adds a few
in the fields of sales, finance, human resources and project management to its
portfolio.

On the Job

It isn't always easy to zero in on a business plan while
building an edutech venture. Just ask Piyush Agarwal, CEO of SuperProfs, a
provider of online coaching for competitive exams, especially for government
jobs. The company has been through at least five iterations, from trying to
capture classes and making the videos available for later viewing at institutes
such as IITs (something he saw at Stanford) to developing high-definition
content and transmitting it on low-bandwidth network for schools.

Finally, Agarwal decided to target the millions of applicants
for government jobs. He estimates that there are about 50 lakh applicants for
jobs in Central and state governments. SuperProfs, which has almost 200
teachers in English and Hindi with more being hired in vernacular languages,
hopes to make a dent in this market.

“We want to be the online market leader for people preparing for
government jobs,“ he says. In doing this, the company, backed by IDG Ventures
and Kalaari Capital, is going head-to-head with old-school, offline training
institutes, which not only have a larger volume of students but, arguably, a
stronger brand. Agarwal, however, is unfazed. “Offline providers don't have the
technical know-how to migrate their large businesses online,“ he says.

There are others that want to take a crack at the government
jobs market. IIT-Bombay graduate Ashutosh Kumar, who started Testbook three
years ago, thinks there is a massive opportunity in this segment but worries
that there are no success stories to emulate. “No one has proven that you can
make money in the edutech market,“ he admits. “We think graduate students (with
better purchasing power) are a more viable target than high schoolers trying
their luck with exams such as JEE.“

To this end, Testbook claims to have racked up 5,00,000 users
who have solved some five crore questions on the platform. In a sign that
offline ventures want a piece of this market, textbook publisher S Chand took a
significant stake in the firm, which was backed early on by Shanker Narayanan,
a veteran private equity investor, and LetsVenture, a funding platform for
startups.

“By the end of this financial year, the number of users should
grow from 5 lakh to 14 lakh,“ claims Kumar. Based on a freemium model of
allowing limited free access, Testbook converts barely 6-7% of its user base to
paid subscribers. Even if this is almost double the industry average, it will
be some time before Testbook can become a meaty business.

Lessons for
Universities

Away from the consumer side of the market -those writing exams
or looking to reskill -some ventures are also helping with the backend of the
business and showing strong, if slow, signs of growth. Rooj of Schoolguru, for
example, helps universities take their courses online, with a special focus on
digitising the paper-based content handed out to distance-learning students.

“Globally, distance education has transformed and we want to
help Indian universities keep pace,“ says Rooj. “We provide them with the tech
platform, including audio and video content, to make this transformation.“

Schoolguru currently has exclusive tie-ups with 14 universities
across 10 states, with several more in the pipeline, according to Rooj.

“We provide instruction in 10 regional languages,“ he says.
“Now, we are looking to expand this business. We have signed our first pact in
Africa and are being approached by universities in nearby countries too.“ Rooj
is thinking big for his business; in five years, he expects five million
students to use his platform and expects revenues to touch $250-300 million.

Scope for
Improvement

Harman Singh, founder of WizIQ, meanwhile, has built a software
platform where students, colleges, universities and test-prep companies can
interact. The firm has over 5,000 service providers and about five million
students using its platform. The business is expected to double every year from
now, according to him.

Two years ago, WizIQ got over 85% of its business from outside
India, but in 24 months it should get 40% of its sales from here. “The Indian
market is highly fragmented, with not one provider owning more than 2-3% of the
market,“ he says. “A platform like this allows you to consolidate these service
providers.“

At the end of the day, both investors and entrepreneurs are
betting on the long-term potential. Says Ravishankar of Sequoia: “The promise
of technology is to make high-quality education available at affordable prices,
at scale. This is the promise that investors are backing and hopefully we will
see several valuable companies built in the education sector over time.“